Often, one winds up in a friend's or relative's bathroom, wanting to wash their hands, only to find a typical bar of soap impregnated with dirt, grease and assorted hair. Alternately, one might find a liquid soap dispenser, the top of which is also covered with dirt and grease. Using the liquid soap dispenser often results in a trail of liquid soap from the dispenser to the sink basin.
To combat this problem, soap manufacturers have created small bars of soap, somewhat more than a single wash. These smaller bars of soap are often decorative, for example shaped like seashells. Such bars of soap are often avoided because they look like decoration and or the user does not want to discard the small bar after they are done washing their hands. Hotels have a similar situation, providing a small, wrapped bar of soap for each room. The bar is often large enough for one to use for a whole week, but often the customer only stays one night, creating waste.
Single servings of soap products are known in the industry, to some extent. None provide a single-use soap bar that adequately lathers a user's hands and/or face. For example, the small bars cited above have a minimum size dictated by the amount of soap that can be delivered during a reasonable amount of time while rubbing under warm water. If made too small, insufficient soap suds would result. As said before, if made too big, the residual soap bar would have to be saved or discarded.
Single serving soap packets are known in the dishwashing and laundry markets. Laundromats often sell packages of laundry soap, bleach, softener, etc. that are sized for a single wash. Dishwasher soap now comes in plastic pouches that dissolve from the heat of the dishwasher water. U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,869 to Friedman disclose a coated film laundry package that has a coating that dissolves when exposed to water in the washing machine. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,539,395 to Banks discloses a water disintegratable soap package. Such packets could be scaled down to the size of a single use hand soap package, but the packet would not dissolve quickly enough to meet the time expectations of a typical user. Furthermore, there would be a small amount of residual packaging that remains during the washing that would not feel right to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,470,851 to Hermanson discloses a soap powder packet that contains powdered soap. The packet is made from a thin paper web, through which water can flow, thereby wetting the powdered soap and producing soap suds. This device has the same problem of the amount of time it takes to produce sufficient lather, but also has a disposal issue, being that the paper web outer layer must be discarded.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,556 to Hildebrandt discloses a bag that contains, for example, liquid soap. The packet is made from a thin sheet of material that can be easily torn, thereby dispensing the liquid. This device delivers soap in a reasonable time, but has a disposal issue, being that the outer layer must be discarded.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,993,174 to Coney discloses a wash cloth with a pouch for containing powdered or granular soap. This device has a similar problem with the amount of time it takes to produce sufficient lather, but has a disposal issue, being that the entire washcloth must be discarded after use.
It is evident from the many prior inventions that there exists a need for individual servings of hand soap. What is needed is an individual serving of hand soap that provides lather/suds quickly while substantially dissolving without the need to discard any waste.